Beetle Era Over: Mexico Is Now Auto Center for Luxury Model Output Nacha Cattan - Bloomberg
go to original November 24, 2014

Premium vehicle maker BMW picked Mexico for a plant site this year. (Bloomberg)

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s German auto history began with small, cheap cars. Now it’s becoming a place where top-of-the-line German brands roll out of billion-dollar factories.

By decade’s end, Mexico will claim fourth place worldwide for German luxury output after the carmakers’ home country, China and the US, according to estimates compiled for Bloomberg by IHS Automotive consultant Guido Vildozo, surpassing Belgium, Spain and Brazil.

In choosing Mexico for a plant site this year, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG validated the nation’s emergence as an auto-assembly powerhouse from its roots making Volkswagen AG’s iconic Beetle. BMW, the biggest premium-vehicle producer, completes the trio of German marques, after Audi and Daimler AG’s Mercedes- Benz, in deciding since 2012 to build cars in Mexico.

“Mexico has become the crossroads of automotive trade for the western hemisphere,” IHS Automotive Managing Director Michael Robinet said in a telephone interview. “Mexico has proven it can build a vehicle of any stripe.”

The luxury automakers jumped ahead of some competitors that are still refining strategies for Mexico, which is poised to become Latin America’s largest vehicle producer. South Korea’s Kia Motors Corp. announced a more than US$1 billion (RM3.34) project in August, while Toyota Motor Corp., the last major automaker without a high-volume Mexico assembly plant, is still studying expansion plans.

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